1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a sheet feeder and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeder.
2. Related Art
Known image forming apparatuses include copiers, printers, facsimile machines, offset printers, or multifunction peripheral printers having at least two of copying, printing, facsimile, offset printing functions, and the like. Such image forming apparatuses include a sheet feeder in which a sheet conveying member separates a sheet in a sheet stack, i.e., a stack of sheets loaded in a sheet container such as a sheet tray and holds the separated sheet before conveying the sheet to image forming devices disposed downstream from the sheet container in a sheet feeding direction.
As an example of the sheet conveying member, an endless dielectric belt is used to hold an uppermost sheet placed on a sheet tray onto a belt surface by an electrostatic force so as to rotate to convey the uppermost sheet to an extreme downstream device of the downstream image forming devices.